I'm Not the Guy You're Taking Home | LANDAN ✔

2 : Acquaintances

Noticing the glass sliding in front of him, Daniel looked in the direction it came from, seeing a young, lovely-looking woman who just sat next to him on one of the bar stools.

"I always see you here all alone, drowning in rum, so I thought I'd come say hi." she said. "I'm Sasha, by the way."

"Daniel." he extended a hand towards her which she took.

"Nice to meet you."

"You, too."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the music and sipping on their beverages.

"So, who's the cutie you keep looking at?" Sasha asked suddenly and Daniel almost spat out his drink.

He looked at her, giving her a look. "Whoever do you mean?"

"Oh, you know, curly hair, blue eyes, gappy teeth. I've seen you stare at him every time you came here."

Daniel swallowed another sip of his rum. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Sasha seemed to get the message, nodding. "Alright." she took a swig of her drink as well. "Oh, look at that, he's just leaving with someone. Is that his boyfriend? I wonder."

"No, it's not his boyfriend." Daniel said before he could stop himself.

"So you do know him."

"Yeah, I fuckin' know him."

Sasha scoffed at him. "What, you've got a bone to pick with him or something?"

Daniel laughed at how far, but not quite far enough, from the truth the statement was.

The woman's face softened. "Oh. You like him." Daniel didn't say anything. "Oh, you poor thing. Why do you keep coming here when you know how it's going to end every time?"

Daniel shrugged. "I guess I expect him to get some sense knocked into him or something." he sighed. "I don't know, okay? I just can't let him go alone. What if someone spikes his drink?"

"Well, that's nice of you. Looking out for him."

He got up suddenly, grabbing his jacket. "Look, I'm sorry, Sasha, it's been great meeting you, really, but I need to go now."

"Yeah, of course! But, uh," she pulled her eyeliner out of her bag, quickly grabbing Daniel's wrist and writing something onto his forearm. "Here's my number. You can text me anytime, okay?"

He nodded, uttering a quick 'thanks' before leaving out the door.

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This time Lando didn't even bother to call before showing up to Daniel's place, huge smiled plastered on his face.

"Hey, mate!" he greeted. Looking at Daniel's tired face, he laughed. "Were you asleep? It's almost one pm!"

Daniel shrugged, letting Lando in.

Lando was smiling, biting his lip, looking at him expectantly and Daniel had absolutely no clue what he wanted from him.

"What's got you smiling like that? You, uh," he swallowed around the obvious pain in his voice. "you have fun last night?"

"Oh, forget about me!" he chuckled. "I saw you talking to that nice-looking lady yesterday!" he was back to biting his lip. "So, what happened, mate? Did you score?"

Daniel felt like throwing up.

"What?" he whispered.

"Don't play dumb! She was totally into you! There's no way you two didn't have sex!"

He felt so bad because of the assumption when, really, it was reasonable. This is what happens in clubs. People go there, get wasted and hook up with the first stranger who seems the least bit interested. This is normal. And yet.

Daniel felt like he was cheating on Lando were he to ever hook up with anyone. Why? Daniel didn't know. He wasn't dating Lando, but having spent the past three years loving him, he felt like a one-night stand would be betrayal in a sense towards the younger man. How could Lando accuse him of such a thing?

"We didn't. She just wanted to have a friendly chat. Nothing happened. She wasn't interested like that, and neither was I." his voice was cold and emotionless as he desperately tried to get his point across.

Lando's smile fell, and he looked down. "Okay, mate, jeez. I just thought you finally found someone too, you know. I was happy for you. She really seemed like a nice woman."

Daniel scoffed. "Yeah, well, too bad I'm not into women."

Lando stared at him, blinking. "You're not?"

It was Daniel's turn to stare. "No? You didn't know? This whole time we've been friends?" he blinked. "I thought I made it fairly obvious."

"Not to me, I guess! I-" he ran a hand through his hair. "I'm so sorry, mate! All these years- I must've made you so uncomfortable trying to get you a date."

Daniel chuckled. "Was pretty confusing, yeah. That probably should've been my first indicator that you had no clue. I guess I just always assumed you thought I was like... bi or something and didn't really question it."

Lando groaned. "I'm so sorry!"

"It's alright, mate, don't sweat it."

Lando looked at him. "Wait, so like- do you like men then?"

"What the actual fuck, mate? We've known each other for, what, four years? And you still don't know that yes, I'm very much gay?"

"I-" Lando stuttered. "How was I supposed to know?!"

"I told you I had a boyfriend before we met!"

The younger man looked down. "Oh, right. I must've forgotten about that." He groaned again, pulling on his hair. "How could I have forgotten?"

"It's alright."

"I feel like an ass."

"Don't worry about it, mate. Now you know, at last."

Me: he thought you and i hooked up

Me: turns out he didnt know im gay

Me: this is daniel btw

Sasha: Lmao!

Sasha: I'm sorry, but that's so funny

Me: i guess it is

Me: somewhat